Literary writers are keen on establishing that human beings or the characters in their literary works are capable of making choices when encountered by various options. The ability to make or not to make choices, in turn, makes all the difference when it comes to how the characters destinies amount to in the end. In essence, the ability to make choices is connected to characters free will and moral culpability, which lies within the characters. However, there are those characters though endowed with the power to make good choices end up making the wrong decisions, which leads others to question their moral culpability. The failure to make the right decisions, in turn, brings about negative consequences to the characters and other people in their lives something that would have been avoided. In light of this proposition, the write-up will consider at least three characters in three different literary pieces to establish the role played by choices. The three literary pieces to consider include The Thing from Another World , Agents of Dreamland , and Fahrenheit 451. Analysis of characters that feature in these literary pieces establishes how characters who are endowed with free will and moral culpability made decisions.
Analysis of the Thing from another World, Agents of Dreamland, and Fahrenheit 451
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These three literary pieces are central to the concept of choices that individual makes in the course of their interactions with others. Each of the literary pieces seems to present to the reader that individuals are endowed with an innate power to make choices whenever they are presented with conflicting options. More so, the characters are aware that their freedom to make choices means that they are partly responsible for the choices and the consequences that are associated with those choices.
The Thing from another World
The Thing from Another World , a science fiction horror movie, is an example of how characters make choices depending on their circumstances. In this film, the US Air Force crew and scientists encounter a UFO, which forces them to rethink their course of action. For one, aliens are almost imaginary, but a chance to encounter one of them sends the character in a frantic mood and must make immediate choices to deal with their dilemma. Dr. Carrington who is one of the main characters seems the individual who makes most of the choices in this film. His decisions seem to be putting the lives of the other characters at risk since they are insensible and selfish. For one, Dr. Carrington in spite of knowing that the humanoid creature is dangerous going the fact that it ingests blood insists that they keep the creature (Nyby, 1951). Carrington believes that the creature is capable of reasoning with the crew and thus teach them alien related mysteries.
Dr. Carrington, keen on following through with his almost irrational choices, goes ahead to make the alien creature to reproduce in the greenhouse. He does this by the use of blood plasma taken from the infirmary secretly uses blood plasma from the infirmary to incubate seedlings grown from the alien seed pods. Carrington’s lack of moral culpability which is critical for effective choices causes the deaths of Dr. Olsen and Dr. Auerbach at the hands of the alien. In a bid to ensure that the alien is preserved, Carrington went ahead to place the two to keep guard in the greenhouse to await the return of the alien (Nyby, 1951). Interestingly, these two characters point to the fact that there are individuals who lack or have limited will free. These two in spite of being aware of the dangers that the creature posed went ahead to stand guard to wait for the return of the creature. Their lack of free will came in the way of making the right choices which caused their untimely demise.
The crew in this film is forced to make rational choices to deal with the alien who has brought more harm than good thanks to Carrington’s, reckless choices. Having realized that the alien ingests blood, the team led by Nicholson, Carrington’s secretary and Hendry douse the alien with kerosene in a bid to destroy it (Weaver, et al. 2018). Their choice to destroy the alien by setting it ablaze is a good choice but puts the lives of the crew at risk as it causes a drop in temperature in the station. The alien while escaping destroyed the heating fuel line forcing the crew to stand near the generator room. Luckily Hendry manages to electrocute the alien together with the growing seed ponds saving the entire team. Hendry’s choices go ahead to show that there are individuals who are endowed with the power to make the right choices even in the midst of competing interests
Fahrenheit 451
The issue of choice has been brought out in this 2018 film by Ramin Bahrani. The movie which is a remake of Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 is an attempt to unmask the government which censors material that is deemed troublesome. The film revolves around Guy Montag one of the firemen tasked with the responsibility of destroying books. Guy Montag chooses to destroy the reading materials simply because it is an order from his superior Captain Beatty. Captain Beatty, on the one hand, is an individual who lacks free will as he is seen as an individual who is working on directives from above. Captain Beatty has chosen to follow the government’s directives to the letter without considering the negative implications it has on people. He is driven by a need to please the government and can do anything to ensure that he is on the good side of the government. Sadly, Captain Beatty maintains a lack of moral culpability which in turn makes him make the wrong choices which hurt the citizens he purports to protect.
Guy Montag has no choice but to destroy the books since it is a common belief that the books are evil and should not be allowed to exist. Guy’s skewed beliefs are harnessed by captain Beatty who thinks that the characters in books are non-existent and their ideas have the ability to upset people. Moreover, these non-existent characters can interfere with the happiness that The Nine offers (Bahrani, 2018). Interestingly Montag loves this new job and the publicity that is associated with the job. For Guy, destroying the books gives him untold pleasure as he is fulfilling the government's directives making him a law-abiding citizen. Guy Montag does not realize that his choice to follow the government’s directive is having a negative impact on the Eels who are an underground book club. The Eels have been forced into hiding as they love books and are keen on ensuring that they save as many books for future use.
Guy Montag finds himself making a different choice when he encounters an old woman who out of love for books self-immolates herself rather than see her library destroyed. Guy wonders what is so important in the books and gets interested in understanding for himself. This action prompts Guy to choose between taking one of the books to understand what books entail to make a woman take such a drastic action (Bahrani, 2018). For a long time, Guy Montag had been buying into the popular belief which has labeled books as evil. However, Guy needs to make a different choice even if it means contravening the government's order. Luckily, Guy meets Clarisse who is a leader of an underground book club who opens Guy’s eyes to the true nature of books.
Guy chooses to help the very Eels he was hired to destroy so that they can advance their objective of salvaging the content found in books. This change of choices can be viewed as a rebellion by the government, but rather it is commendable as Guy made decisions from the point of information. In the end, Guy becomes the solution as the group can encode the books into a birds DNA to save the books from irate firemen. Unfortunately, Captain Beatty kills Guy, but his death is not a loss considering that he has helped secure a future with the information found in the books. According to Kolan (2015), Montag is “not only a hero but simultaneously never being one at all, both savior and victim. His change of mind is commendable and is deemed as a hero in the fight against government censorship, which threatens human liberties and freedoms.
Agents of Dreamland
Agents of Dreamland , a novel by Caitlín R. Kiernan is a fictitious literary work full of mysteries regarding the fate and destiny of humankind. The novel stars Signalman, a detective who is keen on understanding what happened along the Salton Sea. The events at the Salton Sea are related to one Drew Standish a cult leader who offers young people solutions to life problems. For the young people, Standish is a beacon of hope for life tribulations since he offers the young people recognition, which is not in their immediate world. For one Standish believes that technological advancements do more harm than good and as such should be shunned as they are annihilating human beings. For Standish, these advancements are a form of conspiracy to make life unbearable. Standish has made a choice of misleading young people for his own gain. Standish wants his followers to question every event by asking themselves several critical questions. One of the questions Standish asks is “How much have you thought about what was really in the back of the digital switchover in 2013?” (Kiernan, 2017). This kind of questioning makes his followers view Standish as their way of salvation and do not at any one time question his skewed ideologies.
The young people represent characters that lack free will to question the choices that they make because of being misguided by their leaders. The young people though educated and beneficiaries of technology go ahead to ascribe to Standish’s teaching. They are blinded to see that Standish is a manipulative liar who uses their ignorance to build upon his status as a charismatic and misguided self-appointed leader. Moreover, the young people are highly impressionable individuals who allow them to be led into destruction. The young people are not able to make informed decisions regarding their world and have allowed Standish to get in their way of making decisions. They fail to realize that they have a say on their world as they interact with this way at a personal level.
A signalman is a man who helps the readers to understand the impacts that choices have on their lives. Signalman a detective who is keen on unmasking Standish chooses to follow through with the investigation to understand Standish motivation in regard to the event at the Salton Sea. He interviews several people including a waitress and cooks paying special attention to details. For signalman “Every little thing that the Signalman doesn't know is a blind spot, a weakness he can't afford and won't abide.” (Kiernan, 2017). Signalman though a drunkard chooses to pat detail to the smallest of detail to understand the hidden truths. Signalman carefully collects and tabulates the little bits of evidence to finally unmask Standish and help rescue the young men from damnation. In essence, he chooses to stand with the truth by assisting Standish followers to discover the truth by themselves instead of relying on Standish's uninformed convictions.
Literary writers make use of characters to establish that human beings have the ability to make choices, which in turn help shape their destinies. In essence, the choices that characters make are out of free will and moral culpability. However, it is obvious that some characters ignore moral culpability and make choices which impact negatively on others. On the other hand, there are those characters who lack free will and are forced to stick to choices which others make for them. Dr. Carrington in The Thing from another world makes bad choices, which cost the lives of his colleagues. Driven by selfish desires Carrington spared the life on an alien in as much as his team members were against it. Guy Montag in Fahrenheit 451 made a choice to help the Eels to save books for the future a choice that cost him his life. In spite of losing his life, Guy stood for the truth, which made him a hero. In Agents of Dreamland, one encounters young people who lack in free will and ascribe to Standish's ideologies without question. However, Signalman helps the young people make the right choices by unmasking Standish as a self-appointed and deceitful leader. Overall, these examples go ahead to prove that since choices have consequences, one must endeavor to make the right choices.
References
Bahrani, R. (Director), and David Coatsworth (Producer). (2018). Fahrenheit 451 [ Motion Picture]. United States: HBO.
Dolan, K. (2015). Bradbury's Guy Montag: An ontology of conflict and fire [Capstone Theses]. Arcadia University: Glenside, PA, USA.
Kiernan, C, R. (2017). Agents of dreamland. New York: McMillan Publishers
Nyby, C. (1951). The Thing from another World . YouTube. Retrieved on 8 September 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjuLZwlDxh8
Weaver, T. et al. (2018). Universal Terrors, 1951–1955: Eight Classic Horror and Science Fiction Films. Jefferson: McFarland & Company Inc., Publishers.
